A new Life
by sevenofmine
Summary: Plays directly after the events of Scorpia Rising. Alex and Edward enter the plane...which is never meant to arrive in San Francisco... I probably make a Alex Rider/ NCIS crossover out of it... ; Just read and review!
1. Preface

**I started this as an Alex Rider fanfic but it will for sure become a crossover, most probably with NCIS. It is rated M with a reason so please do not complain in case of possible violence, sex, drug abuse or similar actions being described.**

**Preface**

**_Quote:_**

_"Are you feeling all right, Alex?" Edward asked._

_Alex nodded. "Yes. I'm fine."_

_The engines roared. The plane rolled forward, picking up speed, then rose into the sky._

Nothing was alright. Inside of himself something had died.

He wanted to close his eyes and doze off for a while, but each time his vision got black, images appeared, images of exploding vans, of bullets hitting his own body, of a man sinking down in salt. He shook his head and continued staring out of the window.

He looked over to Edward, who flew with him and knew that he was looking forward to present Alex to his wife and daughter and Alex was also keen in seeing Sabina again, more or less.

He didn't know why, but he didn't want to see her that much again. Nothing mattered more to him.

He watched the clouds coming closer and the red-golden paint in the horizon.

It was a mistake, he suddenly knew it.

He looked around, Edward had closed his eyes, trying to sleep on the long flight to San Francisco but even before the motor went off, Alex knew that this plane would never arrive at his destination.

**Please continue reading, alert and review ;)**


	2. Plane Crash

Chapter 1

Alex' breath stopped for a while when the usual motor sound was gone and it was so quite that you could have heard dropping of a pin on the floor.

The airplane seemed to lose height, but the nose of the machine didn't bent forward, it just fell down, out of the sky like a ball who just remembered being too heavy.

After a little gasp, people started to scream and the oxygen masks were falling down from the ceiling. There was no voice or speech by a stewardess to warn or order the people.

So all Alex heard was the screaming and shouting of men and women and he looked out of the window and saw the clouds rushing by. He saw the earth coming nearer and the water.

Suddenly, there was a jerk and the motors yelled again and the plane shot forward and managed to escape the fall-down. Alex' heart stopped beating for a second and he felt kind of relieved before there was a loud explosion he heard and shrieked when he saw yellow-red flames coming out of the motor on the right side where he was sitting.

The plane was still falling toward earth, now it hand side-down, Alex was thrown to the right side and hit the wall of the plane. He heard Edward screaming behind him and looking out of the window he watched the water waves growing and growing.

He already prepared for the touch-down, when the plane's nose flew upward again and was tangent the water surface. The plane rocked a few times and lost its speed but already half of the wing was burning and people were panicking.

'Please do not panic. We succeeded an emergency landing on water. Please open the doors as soon as we tell you to do so and enter the safety boats' a female voice said loudly, one of the stewardesses.

The plane slowed down and Alex loosened the seatbelt. He tried to stay calm and helped Edward to stand up. 'Please leave your baggage here in the plane. Your life's safety goes first' the loudspeaker voice reminded and Alex walked along the corridor.

The people stood up from their seats and of course, they jostled, but nobody was seriously hurt and the plane wasn't sinking fast so they all managed to get out on the rescue boats.

* * *

It took thirty minutes until bigger boats of the water police arrived and helped to get the people out of the cold water. They entered safe land and were gathered. Police officers were giving the passengers hot coffee and a lot of people tried to call their relatives and tell what has happened.

Nobody was allowed to leave the port and no information was given about the reason of the plane crash. Edward called at home but nobody answered.

'Seemed as if they're just out' he told Alex who just nodded.

Alex stared at the water and at the burning plane. He had definitely heard an explosion but perhaps he just suffered paranoia, explainable after what he had been through.

He looked up when he heard more cars arriving. It were black cars with toned glasses and Alex wondered what this had to mean. A man stepped out and walked over to the police officer in charge.

They talked a little while and finally the police man took a microphone to tell some news.

'Is an Alex Rider under the rescued passengers?' he asked twice, three times.

Alex first didn't react, then he slowly looked up, over to Edward whose facial expression just went to zero. His head was pale and he raised his eyebrows. 'Let's go' he said and helped Alex to stand up.

They slowly walked over to the police officer and the man in a black suit and sunglasses, which reminded very much to FBI or CIA. Alex just hoped it wasn't MI5 or anything Alan Blunt had to do with.

'This is Alex Rider and I am Edward Pleasure, his legal guardian' Edward introduced.

The police officer nodded and the man in black turned to the fifteen year old boy. 'I need you to come with me' he said.

'Why?' Alex asked. He didn't want to go anywhere, he had quit his former life and was ready to start a new one.

'I cannot explain' the man answered.

'I will come with him' Edward intervened and stepped forward.

The man with sunglasses shortly looked around and it seemed as if he got orders through a small earphone.

Slowly, he pulled out a gun. 'Alex, I do not want any trouble. Do what I say and you won't be hurt' the man said and pointed his gun toward Edward.

Alex nodded, he had no choice but to do what the man said.

'It's all right' he turned to Edward. 'I have no idea what this means but tell Sabrina and her mother that I'll come as soon as I get out of here, okay?'

Edward nodded unsurely but finally agreed. The man put away his gun and Alex followed him into one of the cars. He crawled on the back seat while the man with sunglasses sat down on the co-driver's seat. He nodded to the driver, who was clothed exactly the same, black suit, black sunglasses and the drove away.

The other three cars didn't follow them and Alex turned around to see the smaller getting people. Fifteen men stepped out of the cars, Alex could only guess that the things they were carrying were sub-machine guns and there followed a volley of shots, screams, shouting, people tried to save themselves but Alex knew that the way the men looked like, it was sure that there won't be any survivors left.

He wanted to ask but he was tired. Tired of people getting killed and tired of shouting and screams, of villains, of asking, of rescuing, of helping. He only wanted to be a normal boy and he knew that either this was going to be, or he wasn't anybody anymore.

He did not ask, he closed his eye and doze off within two minutes.

He didn't know that Sabina and her mother already were dead as well, as dead as Edward.

And he did not know that although Scorpia was destroyed, there were other people.

Other people who did everything for making Alex Rider believe that his foes were dead.

As much as Yassen Gregorovich had survived the gun shot nearly a year ago.

As much as Jack Starbright has never been in that car Alex had seen blown off.

As much as the person Alex Rider has killed himself, has not been Julius Grief at all.

As much as these three people were still alive, waiting to encounter him one more time.

**Please tell me what you think about this beginning ;)**


	3. America

**I can't upload regularly but it would motivate me to get as much reviews as possible :)**

Chapter 2

'Where have you found him?' Mrs. Jones asked her deputy.

'We got an anonymous call to search in an old warehouse at the harbor. There we found seventeen bodies, all men, clothed in black suits and black sunglasses. They fitted the description of a killer commando which had recently wiped out all evidences from the plane crash four days ago.'

'And Alex was there, too?' she asked in disbelief.

'Yes, he had obviously been tortured and he was found unconscious. He now is in hospital but is still unconscious. His condition is stable and the doctors suggest that he'll wake up within the next twenty-four hours.' Mrs. Jones nodded.

She had no idea how this could happen and who made this happen but she was sure that Alex could never carry on his life like that. He would be hunted to death and she did not want to get so far.

He needed to become someone new, unknown. A new identity was all he needed now.

* * *

'Are you sure?' she asked and looked around. Nobody noticed her, she was one of thousand, standing in the crowd of the airport, she has just arrived in Washington.

'Absolutely' the voice from the other side of the phone connection answered. 'He should get some time to get used to his environment.'

'Just make sure that he doesn't get into any trouble.'

'I'll do…How are you recovering?'

'I miss the old times. It will never be like before.'

'Does Blunt suspect anything?'

'He is retired.'

'That was not my question.'

The man laughed. 'No, neither Blunt nor Jones are suspecting anything.'

'Your father has spoken.'

'Nobody is knowable about my existence. My father has never told them about me and he does not know my plan. But he knows that my only goal is to revenge him and Scorpia. And I will do so' the man, the son of Zeljan Kurst said.

He was in hiding since his father has been arrested with the last words to his son, ordering him to do vengeance. His son accepted the challenge and thankfully used the preparation his father has done: Gathering weapons such as Yassen, Jack and Julius.

So now, already having changed his name to Keith Collins, he was in an unknown country of Europe, calling his most trustful disciple who he had ordered to take direct care of Alex himself.

'Good luck with it' she sighed and ended the phone call. She took her rolling case and her rucksack and entered American soil.

* * *

Alex hadn't responded to anything. He had just sit there and listened to Mrs. Jones. She had tried to be kind but it was difficult because he didn't show any emotion or reaction. She hasn't even been sure if he had been listening.

He seemed not to be there, kind of. He stared into nowhere, didn't want to participate to life anymore. She knew that it was best for him to go to a complete new environment where he knew nobody and nobody knew him.

He needed to get away from the dangers and fears of his life and started a new one. This was what she had thought when she gave him the name Alex Doyle and sent him to Washington North High in DC.

He had missed a lot in classes last year and she sent him to tenth class, he would have the whole summer vacation for practicing.

* * *

One week he needed to gather the rest of his things, pack them and take a flight to the USA which wasn't going to end with a crash landing in the water. A taxi driver brought him to an orphanage in which Mrs. Jones had wanted to send him. It was especially for children between thirteen and twenty, when they were still visiting school or doing a low paid job formation.

He was not very enthusiastic when he entered the sad house. There were three leaders, two women and one man and Alex was sent to the third and highest floor. He was glad that it was very modern there and that he had his little own room. There was a loft bed, a couch and above it the bed, two cupboards, a big one for his clothes and a small one for books and similar stuff.

A tiny window and in front of it a desk. There were about two more square meters where he could freely stand but he was glad to have anything at all. He unpacked his luggage and stored it in the cupboard.

He hesitated when he took out a postcard from Paris. He turned it around, there was something scribbled on there, and there was a blurred little red point on it, indicating the room he had once searched, he decided that the postcard wouldn't hurt and put it into one of his books and stored it in the cupboard. He was nearly finished when someone knocked on his door.

'Come in' he said politely, but in a neutral voice. Life was unimportant anymore, why did he exist? He looked up when a girl entered the room.

'Hey, I'm Sasha. I arrived three days ago and I'm knew here, too' she said smilingly and they shook hands.

'I'm Alex' he answered.

'You're British, right?'

'Yes. You have an accent, too…right?'

'Yep, my father was actually Russian' she admitted.

Sudden images of Yassen Gregorovich appeared in front of Alex' eyes. He felt numb for a second, everything got blurry, he saw the dead body, or at least, believed dead body of the Russian hatchet man lying next to him, the plane, it was too fast, Sabina, she was dead, too.

'And your mother?'

'German. But I never really got her to know. She left my father one year after I was born. And my father didn't want to care for me for long either.'

'I'm sorry to hear that.'

'What about you, Alex?' she asked and they both sat down on the 'couch', a mattress that belonged to the bed with a blanket on it.

Alex blinked, he remembered how he opened the door, seeing the blue light from the police vans, knowing that something terrible has happened. He entered the MI5 office once more, saw Mr. Blunt's face and didn't believe what he spoke, that his uncle had been a spy. His father, a paid hit man, a lie, he had been undercover as well. He didn't want to live through all this again and told the story of another boy, the life story of Alex Doyle.

'My mother died in a car crash ten years ago and my father was killed during a bank robbery two years later. I haven't had any more relatives.'

'Oh, I'm sorry, Alex.'

Right in that moment, another boy, Greg, fourteen came in, and told them that dinner was ready.

Sasha took Alex' hand and led him downstairs where he encountered his new family, wondering how long he would have to stay here but being glad, that they all welcomed them.

They welcomed Alex Doyle, not Alex Rider, because Alex Rider was already lost, unreachable lost in Alex' body and waited for someone who was going to find him.

**I'm still waiting for reviews.**


	4. Past

**Okay, this chapter is a bit longer because it contains a lot of flashbacks and quotes from the original books. I only possess 'Scorpia Rising' in English (I couldn't wait for the translation) and therefore I could directly quote it (italic letters). Unfortunately, I only have got 'Eagle Strike' in German and had to translate it by myselfe (indirect quotes, also italic letters).**

**I do not own anything.**

**By the way, I already ask myself why I write this time American English although the book is British. However, you may complain about my English, style, grammar, use of vocabulary or whatever, I'm not native speaker, I am German and I know my English isn't great. I'm sorry. But nobody hear reads German stories and I hope for some reviews. So please comment my story, my writing, my language or whatever. You would make me smile :)**

Chapter 3

It was the start of a new year and Alex found out that he was in the same class as Sasha. She was a cute girl, long blonde and a bit curly hair, pale skin, deep-blue eyes, she was nearly as tall as Alex and very muscular for being a girl.

She was two months younger than him although she already seemed to be much older. Alex nearly spoke and she didn't ask any unpleasing questions which could embarrass Alex. He liked her, she was quiet, friendly and always listened although he barely said anything. She smiled when he needed a smiled and she didn't say anything when she knew that he needed silence.

They're first day went by and they figured out that they had every subject together except for Japanese which she had elected instead of French. On the way home he found out that she spoke quite good French anyway and a bit of Japanese, fluently English, Spanish and Russian. Her father told her that, she explained, before he gave her away.

She had been in an orphanage in New York for about half a year since her father had disappeared all of sudden and when the orphanage closed because of money problems, she was transferred to Washington.

Alex also got to know the other kids, they were around twenty-five on four floors and each of them had one's tiny own room, where you could barely walk three steps. It was enough and he was glad to have time on his own to stare at the ceiling. That's how he spent most of his time, thinking about what he could have done better, how he could have saved Jack's life.

Her first mission and her last one, he should have argued more when she had wanted to join him in Cairo. He still saw the car exploding on the screen, it had been too simple, an escape plan never had to be that easy, it had been so obvious that it was a trap.

He turned around in his bed. He couldn't sleep. He could barely sleep and wasn't tired at day, either. His alert system pushed adrenaline into his body, he always felt like being followed and expected a foreign spy at every corner. He was at wits end, he couldn't talk with anybody and he wasn't sure if he wanted to talk at all.

Nobody could understand what he had been through, all the time, he saw dead corpses everywhere. The danger, so often he had risked his life and never thought about it. He hadn't had any time the last year, so adventurous it had been.

But now, spending the rest of his life hiding, he had enough time to think about his mistakes and about what he could have changed.

* * *

_"Okay! Okay!" Cray muttered frustrated. "Actually I have the orders here, but it seems as if I had to do everything by myself."_

_Cry took the pistol. Alex stood up._

_"No!" Sabina screamed._

_Cray shot._

_But he neither has targeted Alex nor Sabina. The bullet hit Yassen in his chest and threw him away from the door. "I am truly sorry, Mr. Gregorovich" Cray sighed. "But you're fired."_

_He turned around to Alex._

_"Now it's your turn" he said. And fired again._

_"What's up with Cray?" Yassen asked with a weak voice. "Is he dead?"_

_"Yes."_

_Yassen nodded, obviously pleased. "I knew it was a mistake, this contract", he said with toil. "I knew it." He tried to breath and his eyes nearly closed. "I need to tell you something, Alex […] I could have never shot you" Yassen Gregorovich said. "Never. Because…you know, Alex…I knew your father."_

_[…]_

_"Search Scorpia, there'll you find your destiny…"_

_Yassen closed his eyes and Alex knew that he'd never open them again._

Unfortunately, he was wrong. Sabina had found the red button and pressed it. The rockets had exploded and without moving, Alex lay next to Yassen. His eyes closed and he slowly lost unconsciousness.

The plane stood still and Sabina walked back to where she found Alex. But Yassen wasn't there anymore. He had crawled to the seat, trying to stand up.

His wound was deep, but he had been only hit one times. He stood up and with all his power he slowly he staggered to the open door. He heard the sirens of the nearer coming vehicles. He walked on, to the next to which led out on the other side of the plane. He opened it and looked down, four meters down.

He knew that it was close to impossible but without thinking much about it, he jumped down and rolled on the floor to increase the area of pressure. He had learnt this during his training and he managed to stand up shortly after it. All parts of his body hurt and he felt like fainting every second.

But he couldn't stop and forced his body to move on as fast as he could. It was only a matter of time until they'd notice his body missing and start searching for him. He still didn't know how he managed to flee from the airport ground without being noticed by the special forces or MI5 but when he woke up again, he found himself somewhere in the woods, far away from everything.

He removed his pullover and tied it around the wound. It was still bleeding a bit and he didn't know how long he had been unconscious but he knew that the blood loss had been great.

He walked on, staggering, and came to a silent street with a few cars per minute. He was able to stop one of them and the shocked loving couple drove him to the hospital without asking too many questions.

There it was cared about Yassen and his shot wound was stitched. He swallowed a few pain killers and in the middle of the night, he ran away before MI5 could find out his whereabouts. He grabbed the cell phone of another patient and dialed a number while he was running out of the building.

Someone took along the call after a few seconds. 'Yes?' a female voice answered.

'Aleksandra! Listen, something went wrong, I've got shot and managed to get cared at hospital. I'm leaving it now and I try to come back as soon as possible. Just don't worry, okay?' he moaned out of breath.

'Dad?' a female voice just asked. 'Is everything okay?'

'Ya, I'm fine, I'm fine. Stay where you are, I'll catch the next flight to Moscow, I need to leave the country and hide for a while again' he said in Russian. 'I need to hung up.'

'Okay, dad. Good luck, I love you. See you here, soon' Aleksandra answered and Yassen ended the phone call and threw the cell into the bushes.

His wound hurt like hell although he had already taken more pain killers than he should have. He walked through the night of the city, stole some cash, enough to get new clothes and the next ticket out of Great Britain. With stopovers in Düsseldorf and Minsk (Belarus) he managed to arrive in Moscow about two days later.

Although his body hasn't been found, he had watched German news in which a speaker of MI5 declared him dead officially. He wasn't sure if it just was a trap by Alan Blunt to continue the search inofficially but now, nearly one year later, he was sure that Mr. Blunt wasn't seeking him anymore.

He was sitting in his little apartment in Pskov, West Russia, and waited for instructions from Keith Collins, Zeljan Kurst's son who only was driven by revenge for his father.

Yassen looked up from his book, he was still trying to learn Japanese and was making quite effort, when Julius entered the room.

'Sasha called this morning. She managed to become friends with Alex but he seems to have very serious problems' the hit man informed. Yassen always called his daughter Sasha when talking English and Aleksandra when speaking Russian, as Sasha was the shorter and more English nick name of the Russian Aleksandra.

Julius nodded without any emotional reaction in his face. He sat down next to him. 'When will we interact?'

'She called Keith but we need to wait for his orders. He wants to be on the safe side this time, all previous plans concerning Alex Rider have failed the last nine times, whoever made them.'

'This time not' Julius said satisfied and smiled. Yeah, he really looked forward to the revenge on Alex Rider, who had tried to kill his own identical twin, his own 'brother'.

* * *

_They were on their own now._

_"Are you going to kill me?", Julius screamed. He didn't sound afraid. His voice was on the edge of hysteria. "Are you going to shoot me?"_

_Alex said nothing. The Tokarev was at his side, pointing down._

_Julius drew a breath. It seemed to Alex that he couldn't have stood up even if he'd wanted to._

_"What happened to Gunter?" he asked. "Don't tell me he let you go!"_

_"Gunter is dead," Alex said._

_"And you think you've won? You've saved the boring secretary of state and everyone is going to be all over you? 'Good old Alex has done it again!' But it's not like that, is it?" Julius writhed on the grass. His shoulder might have been dislocated. There was a lot of blood, mixing with the rain._

_"You won't shoot me," he sniggered. "You can't shoot me. You don't have it in you. You're just a goody-goody. Alex Rider, the reluctant spy. And I'll tell you what's going to happen. Very soon the police will come and they'll send me back to prison but – you know? – prison isn't that bad. It's just like being at school. And they can't keep me there for ever. They'll wait five year or ten years and then they'll set me free._

_[…] "And look at you know! I can see how much you hate me…"_

_"You're wrong," Alex said. "You're nothing to me."_

_The rain was a mask, hiding his face. His eyes were dark and empty. In his sodden clothes he was almost a skeleton of himself. He turned and began to walk away._

He didn't notice she shadow moving in the corner of his eye, it was too dark and raining to much to see the person watching them. The person came closer but didn't want to intervene, not yet.

_That was when Julius went for the gun, his hand scrabbling through the wet grass. He lifted it and aimed._

_Alex heard him. Some tiny movement. Some instinct. He spun round._

_Julius fired a single shot._

_But Alex fired first._

He turned around again. He let the gun drop into the grass and heard the dump sound when the rain started to pour down on it and made it sink into the ground. He walked away without looking back which was, as he didn't know at that moment, a big mistake. Because he didn't see the person rushing past, but out of the view of his eyes.

She kneed down next to Julius. He had serious wounds, Alex had shot him in his belly. He moaned from pain and had difficulties with leaving his eyes open.

'Hey, Julius!' the girl muttered and touched his cheek. 'I'll get you out of here' she promised and doffed her black pullover. She tied it strongly around the most heavily bleeding shot wound.

'Sasha' he murmured weakly and looked into her beautiful blue eyes that he always compared to the wide, wide ocean. She helped him up, he could barely stand alone and on his own and nearly broke down.

She looked around. Nobody watched them and she saw the shillhouette of Alex Ride walking away. She backed Julius and carried him to the street. The traffic jam had cleared meanwhile and a black BMW was standing on the parking lot aside of the street.

She opened the door and put Julius on the backseat. He was close to losing consciousness. 'Hang in there' she muttered silently in Russian and closed the door behind her.

'Go' she ordered the man on the driver's seat who started to join the traffic.

Sasha pressed the pullover harder on his wounds and tore apart his shirt to examine the wounds. 'Perilous blood loss' she talked to herself while tying Julius' former 'school uniform' around his body to stop the blood flow.

'Sasha…' he muttered again, trying to keep looking at her.

'It's all gonna be okay, right, Julius? Just hang in there and we'll drive you to a hospital as fast as we can' she said and looked up.

The traffic was still too slow after her fancy. It took far too long until they arrived at the old building called hospital and she carried Julius to the emergency hospitalization. Doctors took him over and put him on a rolling bed to directly bring him into the operating room.

They didn't ask much and she was glad when he was in the OR. She returned to the emergency hospitalization where the driver still waited. She ordered him to drive to the parking lot near-by where she killed him with Julius' gun. She put the gun into her jeans and returned to the corridor in front of the OR.

She sat down and pulled out her cell. She needed to call Zeljan Kurst and tell him what happened. After that, she called her father to explain that Alex had once more managed to ruin a Scorpia operation. He wasn't big surprised as he already knew the fifteen year old boy. About twenty minutes later a doctor came by and gave Sasha the bloody pullover back.

'His situation is stable but he has lost much blood. The operation will take about one more hour and after that he'll have to rest unconsciously for at least three hours still. We need to keep him here for the next few days' the doc explained and Sasha nodded knowingly that Julius would never stay that long.

She waited and not even an hour later, Julius was brought into a patient room. Sasha was asked many questions and she answered them lying perfectly. False identity, false reason for the wounds and the appearing and she told that she was trying to call their father (she said Julius was his brother) but she couldn't reach him.

She waited until Julius woke up again. It was deep night already and the rain was pouring down and against the window whose sound kept her away from dozing off.

Suddenly, Sasha had been close to closing her eyes again, Julius started to blink.

'Julius?' she asked carefully and bent forward.

Julius opened his eyes and turned toward her. 'What…What happened?' he asked and in the same moment he grimaced with pain.

'Everything is okay, you're safe.'

'The mission?'

'Failed, unfortunately. Zeljan called me and told that Razim has been killed. They are hunting down the last members of Scorpia.'

'Alex' Julius moaned in disgust and sat up.

'He escaped. Julius, it is not your fault. It's not the end yet.'

Julius turned his head and looked at the young girl. His eyes were full of hatred and evilness. 'I want to kill him' he hissed with all the badness he had.

'Not now. It will take its time. Scorpia is down again, they presumably believe you dead, we can take advantage out of this. But we need to get out of here first. When they don't find your body, they'll worry.'

'Then let's go' he said and pushed away the quilt.

'You're too weak' Sasha said in surprise.

'I'm not. I'm full with pain killers. Where's our driver?'

'I killed him in order of Zeljan. But I have the keys for the car.'

'Then come one, there's no time to waste' he said and stood up.

She smiled when she backed him and helped him walking. 'My father said he'd arrange us a flight to Russia' she proposed and he nodded, still she could see the toil and pain in his face. He would need his time to recover.

Nearly a month Julius had needed to grow back to old strength. And now he was even fitter and more motivated than ever before and ready for vengeance. Still, his greatest defect was his impatience and it drove him mad that Keith Collins wanted to spy on Alex first.

In Julius opinion, he just wanted to go that American school, carry a submachine gun and draw a blood line until there was a man-to-man encounter with Alex. Then he would throw the machine gun on the floor, take out a knife, walk toward Alex Rider and cut open his damned muscular body and at last, cut his neck and watch him bleed out like a pig.

That was Julius greatest dream at night.

He had already thought about different methods of murdering Alex and couldn't decide which one he liked best, torturing, stabbing, shooting, burning, drowning, cooking, crushing, flaying, hanging, sawing or slow slicing, a preferred one, also called Lingchi and it was a Chinese kind of execution, oh man, there were so many possibilities and it made him crazy that he would finally have to decide for one of them.

* * *

_"Mr Smithers must die. I will have it done tomorrow. From what I have heard, and despite his appearance, he is an extremely effective secret agent. So I think I will send perhaps a dozen men."_

_"That seems a bit OTT."_

_"Learn from me, Julius, Maybe one day, when this present operation is concluded, you will join the ranks of Scorpia."_

_"Really? Do you think they'd have me? I'd love that!"_

Sasha entered the living room and quietly took seat on the couch next to Julius. He immediately lay his arm around her shoulder and she cuddled her head at his shoulder.

_[…] "We take no risks; we make no mistakes. Tomorrow morning we kill Smithers and tomorrow evening…"_

_"Alex Rider!"_

_"That's when it begins."_

Razim stood up, smiled at the girl and left the room with no other comment. 'You really think they'll let join me?' he asked and kissed her on her beautiful lips.

'If we succeed and Scorpia still exists, perhaps…But you need to be careful, Julius. I think Razim plans to kill you when this is over' she said and kissed his cheek.

He shortly thought about it and whispered into her ear: 'Shouldn't we go to bed, too?'

She nodded and he took her hand and led her to their common bed room. It wasn't unusual for him anymore to share bed with a girl and she had shown him so many incredible things.

They locked the door and he started to unbutton her black blouse and threw it on the chair. He pushed her down on the bed, Sasha thought she'd still needed to explain him what the words 'softly', 'tender' and 'gentle' mean but she let him do.

He kissed her mouth, her neck, opened her bra and licked her pale and so warm skin. She smiled when she opened his trousers and removed his shirt.

* * *

_Hang on, Alex. Help is on its way._

_She _[Jack]_ pushed the car into first gear and moved off._

[…]_ There were other cameras outside. Alex saw Jack look into the kitchen, then continue down the passageway, where a third camera picked up the main courtyard with the waiting Land Rover._

_"Just one guard," Razim crooned. "We didn't want to make this too easy, did we!"_

[…]_ Alex watched Jack come out of her hiding place and knock out the guard._

_Julius giggled. "She thinks she's being so clever!" he exclaimed._

While they were watching the videos of the surveillance cameras, Sasha also did. She watched what they were watching from the observing room in the second basement and she was watching the room were Razim, Julius and Alex stood in, she wanted to see his reaction.

She sighed seeing how childish Julius behaved. The big screen showed Jack driving the Land Rover. This was going to be interesting. She stared down on Alex movement and was glad when he didn't notice that the image changed suddenly.

There were no close-up shots of Jack anymore but only one that fully showed the car. They had a second Land Rover, being driven by an unknowing driver, and her heart was beating twice as fast when Julius pressed the remote control. She saw the car blowing up and on the second screen, she saw it driving further.

[…] _Alex slumped forward, his head lolling against his chest. He had blacked out. _[…]_ "Wasn't that great!" Julius exclaimed. "Wasn't that cool!"_

Sasha stared at the fifteen year old boy. She needed to examine his reactions, she wanted to know him better. She remembered the stories her father had kept telling about Alex and his father. How John Rider had saved his life knowing that Yassen's girlfriend was waiting at home for him, concerned and pregnant.

How similar Alex was to his father and uncle. She had read every file she could get about him and was fascinated by the cruelness of British MI5 to send down an agent. It was no surprise that it ended like this. She looked at the other screen where Jack was still driving the car.

The video rocked as it was filmed by a car chasing the land rover. It didn't take long and it hit the car and both vehicles stopped. Three gunned men ran toward the first car and pulled Jack out of it. They threw her on the ground, tied her up and brought her back to Razim's facility.

[…] _Two guards had arrived. They untied Alex and dragged him away. Julius followed them out of the room. _[…] _Out in the desert the flames flickered in the darkness, throwing jagged red shadows across the sand._

**Don't forget to review!**


	5. Cinema

**Okay, my English isn't the greatest. I hope you understand what I meant.**

Chapter 4

Alex slowly got used to his old life and really became friends with Sasha. Most of their free time, she helped him getting up with school stuff as he was already tenth grade now.

He understood most of it, but still barely spoke. He didn't want to talk, he wanted to be alone and she let him alone without asking when he wanted.

He felt so empty after knowing that everybody who has ever mattered to him, ended up dead and still wondered who had killed Sabina and her family and who had risked to kill all plane's passengers. The contact to Mrs. Jones broke up, too, as well as the contact to his old classmates.

It was a rainy October Sunday when Alex received a letter from England. He was curious that there was no return address and Alex took the white envelope into his room. He closed and locked the door and sat down on the bed to open it.

His hands trembled a bit because the only persons knowing about his whereabouts were the people of Special Operations division of MI6. He unfolded the white letter and read the content which was written per hand:

_Dear Alex,_

_I hope you got into your new life well and already found a few new friends. In case it may interest you, I agreed with an inner council that the experiment with you was a mistake and will never be attempted again._

_Unfortunately, I also have some bad news for you: Tom Harris, I think a friend of yours at Brookland Comprehensive School, died last Thursday. He was found by his parents in his room and the toxicological forensic scientists found minor dosages of cyanide in his body._

_They assume it may have been injected and it was identified as the same substance which had been used for the operation 'Invisible Sword'. I am sorry for your loss and we at MI6 try to do everything to solve this case._

_We think it may have been the same person who ordered the crash of the plane, the execution of Sabina and her mother and your abduction. But we still have no idea who is that, if he only wants revenge and what he is planning next._

_Please do me a favor, Alex, and do not try to solve this alone. We have qualified men here working night and day and you've had enough adventure. You need a secure life out of MI6 and we do everything to guarantee that to you._

_Please Alex, don't let me worry._

_Yours, Mrs. Jones_

Without an expression on his face, he put the letter back in the envelope and stored it in the pillowcase. He wasn't even shocked by the fact that Tom was dead, he had no feelings toward him or toward anybody. And he was sure that he wouldn't try to find his killer on his own, may he find him, may he kill him.

Alex wasn't interested in this spy life anymore, he wasn't interested in life anymore. He put back the pillow just in case as someone knocked at the door.

He stood up and unlocked it and wasn't surprised to find Sasha smiling at him. 'Hey, Alex. How do you do?'

'I'm fine' he answered and let her in.

'I heard you got post from England.'

'Yeah, an old classmate wrote me. Told me how it's going' he lied.

'Have you already finished your homework? I thought you'd probably be interested in going to cinema with me. There's currently Batman 3 and I thought…'

'Yeah, that would be great' he pretended enthusiastically but wasn't interested in the slightest. But he knew he needed to think about something else than about blowing up cars or poison in one's body.

It didn't rain that much anymore and they walked through the big, cold city. They were walking about five minutes until Alex noticed that there was something unusual. He turned around a few times and then saw a man hushing out of his view.

Now it was sure to him that they were being followed but he couldn't decide if it were the ones wanting him dead or anything else or Mrs. Jones' guarantee to protect him. It bothered him not to know and then decided that he had to find out.

'Let's go through here, it's shorter' he told Sasha and pushed her into a smaller street.

They were walking in a valley of huge skyscrapers and suddenly it rained again and all sunlight seemed to be gone. Alex turned around again but didn't see anybody.

'Alex, what the hell…?' she asked but then abruptly stopped when a man was standing right in front of them. Alex and Sasha looked at the guy in the leather jacket who was slowly pulling out a knife.

'Where ya going?' he asked with a light accent and stepped toward them.

'Let us pass!' Alex ordered and didn't want to bring Sasha into trouble. He knew that this guy wouldn't be a problem for him but he didn't want to demonstrate the girl his real 'I'.

The guy with the baseball cap just laughed. 'Come on, guy. I'll fuck ya girl in front of ya and then finish ya off!' he said and quickly pushed him away and pressed Sasha on his body.

'Fuck yourself!' she said but he pressed the knife at her neck and turned around to Alex. He laughed at him and Alex didn't know what to do.

Not because he couldn't but because he didn't want to cause any trouble and didn't know if he could stop when once started.

He decided.

Without hesitating he walked toward the guy, with both hands he pushed his hand away, kicked him into the balls, picked the knife while bending the arm onto his back, the guy screamed and Alex kicked him once more, pushed him with his hands and threw him on the ground. With the knife in his hand, his kicked with his right foot three times into his stomach, one of the most hurting points of the body.

'Never…touch…a…girl…again!' he screamed, pictures of Sabina flashing in front of his eye, Sabina laughed, they were in London, Sabina and he on vacation in France, Sabina's dead body in San Francisco, her father at the port, the men shooting all survivors of the plane crash.

He didn't even notice that he still was kicking the wincing guy into his belly until Sasha suddenly touched his arm. He turned around in surprise and stopped hurting the man.

'It's okay, Alex. It's okay' she only said and hugged him deeply.

He didn't know what she must think of him but she obviously knew how this pleased him. In contrary, Alex admitted that he had felt nothing, nothing at all.

He looked at the injured guy whining on the ground and had no emotional reaction toward it, he didn't feel pleasure or regret, he just saw the fact that he had hurt someone. He pushed Sasha gently away.

'Sasha, listen. That…is not me. I don't…' he started to explain but she put her pointing finger on his mouth.

She slowly shook her head and ignored the man on the floor. 'Let's go' she decided and took his hand. Without turning back she led him out of the passage and Alex remembered again why they had turned in there.

He looked around but didn't saw anybody following them. He needed to explain Sasha, he needed to tell her the truth. But he couldn't. He heard Sabina laughing inside his head, he heard the explosion of the bomb, her father hurt, her father now dead, he didn't want anything similar happen to Sasha. Perhaps it was better then to keep silence.

They decided to walk back to the orphanage and not to visit the cinema and he was quite glad about it. But then he thought it would be a joke of his destiny when his shadow followed them again.

'Someone's following us?' she whispered when he seemed to have turned around too often.

'I think so' he answered and pushed her around the corner.

'Come on' she said and determined the direction. They were again in a dark alley and Alex hoped for better luck this time. Sasha looked around but nobody was in sight. She ran toward the wall and jumped for the emergency ladder. She grabbed it and pulled herself up. Alex had to smile seeing her like this, she obviously liked a bit adventure and followed her.

The rain had stopped a while ago but they still needed to be careful not to glide away. They reached the top of the building and entered the flat roof.

'And where now, Sherlock?' he asked when he stood next to her.

Without answering, she walked toward the next roof which was about two meters lower and jumped on it, rolling aside for not having too much pressure on her body. He followed her and they walked on the roofs of the following buildings. It was already a bit dark and they were glad that nobody was there to see them.

At the end of the street, they climbed down such an emergency ladder again and walked the rest of the way through the open streets. No follower was seen anymore but he knew that she was waiting for answers for his strange behavior.

**I'm still waiting for reviews...**


	6. The truth

**I must admit that I nearly never plan stories. I have an idea and need to write it down. Then while writing I think about how the story could go on. Then slowly, I get an action but the most difficult part of it is the ending. Because in my versions, the evil mostly win. They do always lose or get killed in the books or movies and so they win at least in my fanfic. For example, I used to like Julius when I read the book and was sad when he got killed (although he's a bit childish). I like Yassen very much and it's a shame that an antagonist with so much potential already died in book 4 and therefore I'll really looking forward to the new novel about Yassen.**

**Perhaps Alex won't die here in the end but I'm not sure yet. Don't be disappointed in case the evil get away and don't stop reading because of that. Like I said, I don't know an ending yet. (And I already killed Alex in my other Alex Rider/ NCIS fanfic "A dangerous girlfriend").**

**Just read on and tell me what you think about it.**

Chapter 5

'MI6 is still protecting Alex' Sasha informed Keith.

'Be careful. We need to be on the safe side this time' he warned her.

'When will you interact? I think we've waited long enough and Julius is getting impatient.'

'I booked him and your father a flight to Washington. They'll arrive in two days and stay in a little flat in downtown. They'll watch Alex for a while and then we'll exchange Alex with Julius.'

'They need to be careful as well. Alex noticed his MI6 follower today, he's already suffering paranoia.'

'Has he told you anything yet?'

'Nope. I guess he fears that I'll end up like Sabina.'

'Has it been fun?'

'A satisfaction, she had been his girl for so long' Sasha answered smilingly.

'Good. Yassen will call you as soon as they landed in DC.'

The connection was lost and Sasha put away her cell phone. She was sitting in her little own room which was two doors away from Alex' and looked exactly the same.

She decided that this was enough for today and went sleeping. She knew that Alex would tell her sooner or later. She had time and was patient, in contrast to Keith and Julius.

* * *

Sasha awaited Julius and her father Yassen at the airport. The flight was late, usual for the airline but finally the two men passed the gates. She hugged her father deeply and kissed Julius on his lips.

She and Yassen have agreed with Keith that when the operation was over, she'd be allowed to kill Julius. With a provided car and a faked driver's license she drove them to the flat Keith had bought for this little operation. They unpacked the things and Yassen went to the supermarket.

'Well, now we're alone' Julius said and put his hands around Sasha's waist and pushed her against the wall.

'And what do you propose?' she asked alluringly.

'I don't know' he said and wiped a strand of hair from her face.

Twenty minutes later they lay on the bed in Julius' room. 'You heard that?' she asked suddenly. 'Dad's coming back.'

She searched her clothes and started putting on her jeans and t-shirt again. Julius just sighed and took his time for putting on his clothes again. Sasha already went into the living room where Yassen put two brown paper bags on the table.

'I called Keith. He thinks we could start within one week' he explained in Russian because he knew Julius wouldn't understand it. She nodded.

'Can I kill him then?' she asked and nodded over to Julius' room.

'Of course, but we need to be careful. You should not underestimate Alex Rider, Aleksandra.'

'I know. Dad, trust me. Nobody will ever do this mistake again.'

'Tell "Scorpia".'

'MI6 already knows that something's planned. They sent someone to follow Alex secretively.'

'If this could be a risk, eliminate them, Aleksandra' Yassen permitted and made his girl smile.

'I love you' he added and kissed her on her hair. 'Now go back and care for dear little Alex.'

She nodded, hugged him again and left the flat.

* * *

'Sasha, I…need to tell you something' Alex said, without emotion, without any feeling in his voice or in his soul. He did not look at her, he couldn't look at her beauty, he stared at the wall, into nowhere.

She sat down on his bed and watched him. She had never asked anything, she had always listened when he spoke, rarely, she had spoken, talked with him, even when she hadn't got an answer and she had kept silence when he wanted it.

'Alex…' she started but he shook his head.

'I lied to you…I'm not the person you think I am.' He cursed himself. Why did he do this? He could stop right now, tell her that he wasn't ready yet.

But it was only fair toward her, it was fair for her to know the truth, she was the right person, with her he could speak and nobody would ever know what they have spoken about.

'Come with me' he decided. This place was too unsafe, it could be bugged.

They walked out of the building, walked through the big city and entered a park. They were more anonymous here, they could be watched, but nobody would hear what they talked about. She hasn't said anything yet, she only listened, friendly and patiently. He liked her patience and that she was interested but not intrusive.

'I did not tell you the truth about me' he started once more and stared at the green nature.

He remembered Sabina's face in front of him, her laughing, her smiling at him, her crying, her being angry or her being scared when they had been kidnapped by Cray. Her life had been in danger because Alex had felt something for her, because he had told her. But why?

Because he had perhaps loved her, he didn't love anymore, because everybody found out that he told her, Blunt, Yassen, Cray, now nobody would know, he would not tell anybody and he was sure she wouldn't either.

He did not know how Sabina died but he wished her a fast death, he hoped that it hadn't hurt, he could never forgive himself, he was responsible for the death of her and her family, for the death of the hundreds of passengers, police officers and helpers at the plane crash.

Actually, one dead body more or less didn't matter, but Sasha mattered to her. He didn't want to bring her life in danger and didn't understood himself when he did.

'My name is not Alex Doyle. I'm actually called Alex Rider, I'm British, went to Brookland for a while but then…I was…recruited by British MI6 secret service for one of their missions.'

He made a little break to see her reactions, there were none. 'On one mission other followed and at all, I was nine times involved in some kind of undercover missions I made for MI6, CIA and some other people. I know that sounds odd and you probably don't believe me but—'

'I do believe you' she said quickly and took his hand. 'It all sounds so obvious, it explains a lot.'

'Explains what?'

'Your behavior. Why you could tackle that guy with the knife, why you've been followed and how you'd escaped him…your…behavior…you…must have been through a lot and I understand that it's been very hard.' She tried to smile and Alex tried to smile back. No, she couldn't understand what he'd been through but maybe she imagined.

He was glad that she accepted his explanation as fast as Tommy had.

'Alex, have you…have you killed? I mean, I've read a lot about psychological traumata and consequences and I think—'

'Yes. You're right, I have killed persons. And I'm responsible for some more deaths' he admitted and pulled back his hands from hers. She nodded but took his hands again.

'You're still under shock.'

'You can't imagine…seeing someone getting killed…killing someone…'

She sighed before she spoke on and she chose her words advisedly. 'For a matter of fact, I once saw…someone dying.'

'Who? When?' he now asked in surprise.

'When I was six years old, I've lived with my mum before and my parents had an argument because she couldn't understand my dad, he…pulled out a weapon and she grabbed a kitchen knife. They didn't notice I was standing in the door. My father…kicked away her knife, took another one and stabbed it into her body.

'Then he turned around and saw me in the doorstep. I walked nearer and he turned the knife in her flesh and pulled it out again. With a kitchen towel he wiped the knife clean and put it back. Since then he care for me' she answered.

Alex couldn't respond. He would have never guessed that she had experienced so much cruelty in her life, so much…he couldn't describe with words.

But it was similar to him, she concealed that her father had trained her killing after this event, that she had started to like it, although she didn't feel the psychopathic pleasure, that she killed first time in the age of six, that her father had been so proud of her and so glad. That he had trained her inner control so that you coped the bad conscious, he taught her meditation and patience, sports, physical fitness and mental one, forced her learning all languages he spoke, too, Yassen was capable using eleven languages, including Japanese he had kept learning the days when he officially had died and Chinese which he had recently started.

'I can understand you, Alex Rider and you can be sure that I won't tell anybody about what you told me or will tell me.'

'Promised?'

'I promise with my life…and the one of my father.'

'He's still living?'

She nodded, looking sad. 'He gave me away because he wanted more time for his job.'

'What's he doing?'

'He's a hatchet man.'

Alex didn't react. An image of Yassen Gregorovich passed his head, blonde, blue eyes, perfect body, physical and mental fitness, Russian. No, that couldn't be. Yassen was dead and there were more than just one contract killer in Russia. It was a coincidence and he completely threw this thought away.

'So, tell me more about you, Alex.'

'What do you want to know?'

'Everything. How did you come to MI6? When did you start working for them? Something 'bout your missions' she said and held his hands stronger.

He hesitated.

'I know that you never wanted to spoke with psychologists or staff like that. But with me you can talk, Alex. I bet I can better understand you than them. I got you to know for a little while already and I know that a lot must have happened to…change you.'

Alex sighed. He decided to trust her, he wasn't forced to talk with her, she didn't get money for listening like all the psychologists did. She was just interested because she liked him.

But he didn't get the picture of Sabrina's dead and cut open body out of his mind. Perhaps she had been stabbed, perhaps shot, perhaps blown in thousand pieces.

'Before I tell you that…I really want you to keep this secret. The last people I told me true identity were all killed because somebody found out or MI6 leaked. I told you because I thought it was only fair toward you to explain my…strange behavior.'

She nodded. 'I don't care how much I risk, Alex. I think I can watch myself if necessary.'

Alex understood. MI6 had always found out that Sabina and Tom knew, now, they were alone.

He looked around, nobody suspicious, nobody watched or listened to them.

He started to tell.

**Okay, I'm always writing 'Please review' and I thank you for all the review I've got but I'm still unsatisfied when e.g. writing a 50,000fanfic and getting a one single one-liner review. Even if this story isn't that long, I need comments or I just don't see if anybody's interested in this story...**


	7. Wolf

**As threatened, this turned into an Alex Rider/ NCIS crossover and even if you don't know NCIS, you can understand the action.**

Chapter 6

Alex and Sasha had stayed outside for a very long time, talking, speaking. Alex hadn't talked for so long with anybody and never so much. It felt good telling someone the truth and what he really felt and trusting somebody.

It was about nine o'clock when Alex received an SMS by one of the responsible where they were and they permitted them to stay out for another one hour. They were slowly walking back at five to ten. They passed the dark bridge but were surprised to find so many people there.

Alex and Sasha passed the onlookers, standing behind a yellow and black tape. When Alex and Sasha got a view, they noticed that it was a crime scene, several cops running around, two dead bodies lying on the floor.

'What have you got?' asked a cop, NCIS was written on the back of his dark blue jacket, when he entered the crime scene. He seemed to be a bit older, had grey hair and blue eyes.

'Seems as if he had been the target. We don't know his identity yet. This guy, Lieutenant Christian Baker, came to help him and was stabbed, too. But the first murder seemed to be quite personal' one of the special agents, a man in his forties, looking much younger, brown hair and an NCIS cap wearing, explained.

'Why?' the older man, obviously the boss, answered and sipped his Starbucks coffee.

'A gun shot from distance to disable his victim. It seems as if he knew him or heard from his skills. He seems to be muscular and well trained and could have defended himself' the pathologist, an old man with glasses and a strong British accent explained. 'He got a shot into his shoulder and went down.

'Our dear Lieutenant sees that and wants to help. He is killed with two gun shots from nearer distance. He goes down as well and the killer comes to our first victim. He pulls out a knife and cuts the body open until he bleeds out.'

'Time of death?'

'Approximately two hours ago.'

'What can you tell me about the profile of the killer?'

'Jethro, all I can tell you that he just killed two men very professionally and didn't want to take any risks. Either it was something personal or he wanted to make sure that we know that this man was the actual target' he explained and stood up and pointed at the unknown man.

Another medical examiner kneed down and turned the body around.

'Wolf!' Alex gasped and put the hand in front of his mouth, he had recognized the unidentified man.

'You know him?' Sasha silently asked although she already knew the answer.

The grey-haired man turned around to them. 'You know him?' he asked Alex who decided to nod. 'Come here' the boss said to both of them and Alex took Sasha's hand again when they passed the crime scene marker.

Alex walked over to the dead body of wolf, the former team leader of K-Unit in SAS training where Alex had participated in preparation of his mission.

'It's Wolf, the team leader of the preparation training. I told you about him' Alex told Sasha and examined the dead body. He was pretty sure that it was him, he had recently seen him shortly after training again. Wolf was short, muscular, black, close-cropped hair, dark brown eyes and wore black clothes.

'You know his real name?' another special agent, he was very tall and thin, pale, brown hair as well, asked.

'I just know his alias or operating name Wolf' Alex admitted.

'Then tell me something more' the boss said impatiently.

'He worked for British MI6' Alex said in one breath and looked into the shocked faces of the NCIS agents. Shit, he cursed himself. Now he needed to invent a whole new story why he knew this, then he had to contact Mrs. Jones again who could cover this story and he'll perhaps had to move away again if his cover was blown.

The boss nodded. 'What are your names?'

'I'm Alex…Rider' he said with hesitating a second. There was no sense in lying and his girlfriend new the truth anyway.

'I'm Sasha Selivanov' she explained.

And only twenty minutes later they found themselves at NCIS DC headquarters, in the conference room, talking to agents Ziva David and Timothy McGee. Alex told them that his father had worked for MI6 and he therefore knew Wolf and that he needed to call someone there to tell them that one of their agents was found dead. Ziva gave him her cell and let the two fifteen years old alone.

'Who are you calling?' Sasha asked.

'Mrs. Jones. I think she won't be very pleased but I need to inform her.' He dialed the number and was glad when someone picked up the phone.

'I'll send you someone, Alex. Keep on telling some lies but don't make them too complicated. And invent something for this Sasha. You trust her?'

Alex turned around and looked at the beautiful girl sitting next to him and staring outside of the window. It was pretty dark outside and raining again.

'Yes' he decided.

'Good. Perhaps we don't have to move you away again but under no circumstances tell her the truth, understood?'

'Yep.'

'Okay. Wolf was sent here to tail you. He said, you and Sasha talked a lot today.'

'Yes, nothing important.'

'You didn't reveal anything, did you? I mean—'

'No, trust me. I know the consequences.'

'Okay. It means someone is officially after you. I'll send you an agent.' Mrs. Jones ended the phone call and Alex sighed. This was not going to be nice.

It took about two minutes until Special Agent David and the pathologist referred to as 'Ducky' entered the conference room again.

'Hey, how are you two?' Ziva asked and they answered with nodding and 'okay'. 'We found this in Wolf's pocket' Ziva said and showed them a plastic bag with a tiny calling card inside. It was white but showed a golden scorpion. Alex' mouth dropped open when he recognized the sign.

'Scorpia' he muttered. Someone must have put this into Wolf's pocket.

'I beg you pardon?' Ducky asked and stepped nearer.

'I think it's…just one of Wolf's MI6 cards, don't know, perhaps has to do with a current mission he was having. I'm sorry but I'm not involved into MI6's newest cases' he said and Ziva nodded.

When she left the room again, Ducky closed the door and began to speak: 'He's lying. He knows more than he is revealing.'

'And the girl?' Ziva asked while they were walking down the stairs.

'She's a better liar. They're close friends but she seems to have her secrets, too.'

'I've got bad news' Tony said and looked up to them at the stairs.

'What?' Ziva asked.

'You were right, Ducky. Abby analyzed the strands of her we secretively took from the two girls.'

'And?'

'It means trouble.'

'Specify 'trouble'!' Gibbs ordered who was just walking in, of course, with his coffee in his hand.

'His name is Alex Rider and he is in MI6 data bank. His file is classified and Abbs and McGee are just hacking into their network. Sasha was more tricky. She has a sixty-four percent match with a Russian hit man called Yassen Gregorovich. He was killed about half a year ago by one of his clients although MI6 never found his body.'

'Could he still be alive?' Ziva asked.

'Unlikely. He was heavily wounded. However, Abby thinks that she might be a relative to him. There's a daughter called Aleksandra Gregorovich but we have no information about her.'

'She may have changed her name' Ziva proposed.

'No' Gibbs suddenly said. 'Sasha is the Russian abbreviation for Aleksandra. It _is _her.'

'Well, then there's the question if Alex knows' Tony said.

'Presumably not.' They all turned around. Nobody has noticed Abby and McGee coming in.

'What do you mean, Abbs?' Gibbs asked nerved.

'We managed to hack into the data banks of British MI6. And this is what we've found' McGee explained and handed over the boss a just printed new file about Alex Rider.

It was very thick and obviously the reason why the forensic scientist and McGeek had needed so long. 'Read it' Abby recommended and they all sat down together in a 'bonfire', like Tony called it and found out who Alex Rider really was.

'Holy shit' Abby cursed when they were finished.

'It is no coincidence that his girlfriend is the daughter of his most severe enemy' Ziva commented.

'True. But what does she plan?' Tony asked.

'Revenge?' McGee proposed.

'Unlikely. Although she is the daughter of a cruel killer and may accuse Alex for the death of her father, she seems to be a very balanced and patient girl' Ducky analyzed.

'So?' Gibbs asked and looked at the medical examiner.

'Perhaps she plans something but I think she may be part of a greater plan. There are a lot of people who may want revenge on Alex Rider. Maybe she is used by one of them.'

'Possible' McGee admitted.

'We'll dig deeper' Gibbs said and they looked up when a man in a black suit appeared out of the elevator.

'I assume MI6?' Gibbs asked.

The man nodded. 'I'm searching a special agent Gibbs.'

'You found him.'

Gibbs stood up, shortly looked at the team, meaning that they should continue the research and led the MI6 guy upward the staircase to present him Alex and his not so trusty friend Sasha.


	8. Escape

**Last chapter and I'm already writing my next Alex Rider fanfic but I'm not sure if I can finish it before I'm on vacation (without computer and I need another movie for this story, if you'll read it, you'll understand). So I think I won't upload any more stuff in the next three weeks... :(**

**So please review so that I can get good memories with me on vacation and that I don't miss too much. Two weeks without it will be pretty hard and I will only be able to speak Spanish in these two weeks...**

Chapter 7

Alex was glad when he was sitting in his own little room again. He had expected more trouble but the guy from MI6 had brought him and Sasha back to the orphanage and they told some kind of invented story for the leaders and the NCIS agents.

Of course, this cover story was also told to Sasha because nobody should know that she knew the truth which – of course – she had already known before. He already was aware of the fact that telling Sasha the truth would bring him into further trouble but he didn't care anymore.

He wasn't even surprised anymore how less he cared about other people. He just lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling, hoping that he'd know enough for the Maths class test tomorrow.

The death of Wolf has not been a coincidence. Someone was still following him, planning something and wanted to show that he is there. They eliminated the MI6 agent spying on Alex so that he was unprotected now. Of course, Mrs. Jones was concerned now and Alex was sure that she sent some more agents to watch after Alex and to be more careful this time.

* * *

Although it was around two o'clock in the morning, Sasha was sitting in her bed with her laptop and watched a video of the CCTV surveillance camera inside NCIS headquarters.

What she saw, she didn't like at all and she directly informed Keith that Gibbs and his team have not only found out who Alex really was, but also suspected Sasha being involved into some revenge plan concerning the former MI6 agent.

She suddenly got a call from Yassen and grabbed her cell. 'It's two in the morning, you know?' she answered in Russian.

'We'll start tonight. As planned' her father shortly answered.

'When exactly?' she asked shocked that she was informed so lately.

'We're in front of the building. We come in now. Stay in your room in case something goes wrong. You'll be the back-up plan then' he said and ended the call.

Sasha sighed and lay down again. She was quiet and listened. Three minutes later she heard silent footsteps, only noticeable when knowing that there were some. She knew that they would get Alex unconscious with chloroform and Yassen would bring him into an old factory building in the industrial area where they could keep him for a while until they decided who and how to kill him.

In the meanwhile, Julius would take Alex' place. Julius had learnt everything to replace his lookalike and Sasha would help him, too. She and Yassen already knew that Keith Collins, Zeljan Kurst's son wanted to kill Alex with his own hands and therefore was exactly right now entering the ground of the United States of America for doing so.

* * *

Alex woke up and immediately knew that he wasn't in his bed anymore. He touched the ground where he was lying on and felt cold stone. Disorientated he sat up and looked around. Black.

There was nothing to see and no light. He stood up and walked around like a zombie, after two steps, he touched a stone wall and walked along it.

He estimated a little cell being four meters wide and three meters long. He sat down on the wall again and waited. He knew that the door was in front of him and he expected somebody to enter every second.

He waited a little while, he had lost his sense for time, until the door was opened and bare light came in. A man he didn't know was standing there. He was tall, muscular and somehow reminded him of someone Alex knew.

'Stand up' the man ordered with a slight accent and Alex did as he was told.

The man pointed a gun at him and ordered him to walk. Alex got out of the tiny room and saw that he was inside an old and abandoned factory. He was pushed on a chair and a second man tied him on it. 'Who are you?' Alex asked unfriendly and impatiently.

The unknown man only smiled. 'My name is Drazen Kurst' he answered and stared into Alex' brown eyes.

There was only little light in the room but enough for Alex to recognize the madness in his face. 'Ah, Zeljan Kurst, I remember…' Alex said. 'Is he your daddy?' he asked provokingly.

'He was!' the man hissed evilly. 'He was executed.'

'I thought there was no death penalty anymore?'

'He was arrested by Interpol. He died through injection—'

'And you want to revenge him?' Alex completed the sentence. He had heard this too often before and he didn't want to fight anymore against it.

Drazen smiled. 'Exactly. And believe me, you'll beg that I'll kill you when I'm finished with you.'

'I don't doubt that.'

'Oh, you tiny son of a bitch' he screamed and stumbled forward him. He took a knife and started to flay Alex' skin.

Alex screamed in pain he had never had, well, physically never had. It took ages until Drazen stopped again and looked at his work. Alex felt the tears running down his cheek and saw his left foot. The matching skin lay on the floor next to it. Alex yelled and cursed which only pleasured Drazen even more.

'I think you'll have a nice night, Alex. Good-bye and see you tomorrow' he said and left the hall.

'No!' Alex screamed and repeated thousands of times. 'You can't do that to me!'

* * *

The next morning, Sasha and a boy looking like Alex were going to school again. She was a bit nervous in case they were still followed and someone would notice that the boy on her side was Julius, Alex' doppelgänger. But everything went alright and Julius had learnt his role perfectly well and finally could replace Alex as ever wished, since the Gemini project had failed.

On the way back to the orphanage Sasha got a phone call from her father. 'Ya?' she asked, of course, in Russian again which she was always speaking when talking to her dad.

'We've got a problem. CIA intervened in one of the old training camps three hours ago. They arrested all of Collins' men and also found Jack alive. It won't take long until they add one and one and inform British MI6.'

'So, what do you suggest?'

'I will tell Keith right now. And you and Julius should make that you get out of here.'

'Okay…wait, wait, dad. Don't tell him!' she said and looked aside.

Julius didn't know what they were talking. 'Don't tell him. You know you made the mistake of choosing a wrong client a year ago. I bet he planned to kill you anyway after the mission was over. Let…let MI6 arrest him and we're out of it. I could make Julius vanish and we disappear again.'

Julius looked up, having noticed the name, but not having understood the meaning of her words.

'Aleksandra…'

'Dad, I'm worried about you every day. I want a life in which I can count on that my father comes home again…or in which I at least can do everything with him together.'

'I know what you want but you also know that it's impossible–'

'It's not. We can straight go back to Russia and you can continue being a normal hit man and I could help you in everything. But MI6 is appearing far too often in my eyes and we know that every try to kill Alex Rider has failed yet. Mostly because you insisted on keeping him alive.'

'I never protected him!'

'You did, dad. Just because his father has saved your life and you owed one to Alex. But the bill is paid now, dad. Leave Alex be Alex and let us disappear as long as we still can.'

She heard her father sighing.

'Okay, I'll book a flight back to Russia for us. But promise me that you finish Julius and Keith off, first.'

'Keith, too?'

'Yes. I want you to go to the fabric, kill everybody there and free Alex. I want him to get back to a normal life as much as we will, okay?'

Sasha hesitated a moment but then nodded. 'Alright. I know that you always liked John…You were best friends and you can never forgive that he died…and that Ian died, too. But you couldn't have prevented it, dad?'

'Just do as I told you' he said and ended the phone call.

Sasha sighed and looked at Julius who wondered what she had been talking about. 'Where are we going?' he asked surprised when she altered the direction.

'To Alex' she said and explained that all their guys have been arrested and that Jack was free and alive.

'Damn shit' he cursed but also looked forward to the possibility to see Alex suffer and being tortured.

* * *

'Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs!'

'I'm hearing you, McGee!'

'I just hacked into a very secret server and –'

'McGee!'

'Interpol arrested forty-five people in an abandoned Al Qaeda training camp in Saudi Arabia and found a hostage.'

'And?'

'The hostage's name is Jack Starbright.'

'Isn't that…?' Tony asked and stood up. Ziva and Gibbs were walking over to McGee's computer as well.

'Oh my god. She's alive. Alex needs to know this!' Ziva said.

'He doesn't answer his phone' a voice suddenly said and they all turned around. Abby was standing there, holding up her own cell.

'What?' Gibbs asked surprised.

'Well, I found that with Jack out as well and thought he would perhaps needed to know that. I know, I shouldn't have tried calling him to tell we know everything about his secret, but he doesn't answer anyway.'

'Can you locate his cell?' Gibbs asked suddenly.

'Yeah, why?' McGee asked and turned back to his computer.

'My damned gut instinct telling me something's wrong!' Gibbs shouted.

* * *

Sasha took the gun from under the car's seat and worried looked at Julius. That childish boy only looked as happy as if Christmas and Easter have arrived on one day when they were entering the road to where Alex was hidden.

He opened the big front gate and shut it after them again. They recognized a dead body, one of Drazen's men, and Drazen standing in front of an Alex Rider, tied up on a chair.

'What are you doing here?' Drazen asked when he looked up and saw the two children.

'Didn't want to miss the party' Julius said when he got closer. 'How are you, honey?' he asked Alex.

'Fuck yourself!' Alex hissed through all the pain he was enduring.

'Has anybody called you?' Sasha asked casually.

'No, why?' Drazen asked in surprise.

'Oh, just asked' Sasha said and pulled out her gun. Without hesitating she pulled the trigger and a nanosecond later the man was lying on the floor, seriously hurt and nearly drowning in all the blood. The red liquid flew out and formed a great puddle of blood on the floor.

'You bitch!' he shouted but she only stepped closer and fired two more times, one into his chest and the other shot between her eyes.

'What the hell are you doing?' Julius asked and came nearer.

Sasha turned around and smiled. She put the gun back into her jeans and started to untie Alex.

'I would ask you exactly the same' Alex said when he was freed. He looked at his doppelgänger.

'Haven't I killed you?' he asked.

'You wished you would have killed me. So that I can't kill you now' Julius shouted. He moved forward, at the same moment in which Sasha tried to get between those two boys, but exactly a second later, they all heard a deep voice shouting: 'Freeze!'

They all stopped in the middle of their movement and looked at the door. Special Agent Gibbs was just coming out of there, followed by Special Agents DiNozzo, David and McGee.

'Who the fucking hell are you?' Julius asked and Sasha noticed the confused glances in the Agents' eyes when noticing that there were _two_ Alex Riders.

'First tell me who you are' Tony said and came closer.

Neither Alex nor Julius spoke but Sasha: 'He's a lookalike. He was made by a mad scientist about a year ago.'

'Yes' Ziva said. 'But you died in the fire of Brookland school' she added toward Julius.

'You…know?' Alex was the one who said in surprise now.

'We've read your file' McGee informed.

'It's classified!' Alex responded.

'Ya, we…hacked into it…well, he did, in case MI6 finds out' Tony said.

There was a moment of silence in which everybody stared at everybody else, the Agents all pointed their guns at one of them three, not able to decide which one was the dangerous one.

'Okay, but what I don't understand is why you wanted to save Alex' Ziva told Sasha.

'Well…' she started but Alex intervened: 'And what do you have to do with Drazen and Julius?' He pointed at the two dead bodies on the floor.

'Well, let me explain this' Tony started and seemed to like the situation of total confusion. 'Sasha is the daughter of a Russian hit man, Yassen Gregorovich.'

'That name rings a bell' the boy said and turned to Sasha. 'You lied to me.'

'Well, not exactly' she answered.

'By the way, we suppose Yassen's still alive' Tony added.

'What? I saw him die!' Alex said in surprise.

'No, he managed to get away, he was only shot seriously' Sasha explained.

'See' Tony said and smiled.

'And he helped Drazen to find a way to kill you. Therefore Drazen also hired Julius, who also did not die…' Sasha said.

'I shot him!' Alex tried to protect himself.

'No, she brought me to the next hospital' Julius explained and side-looked to Sasha.

'Why?' the MI6 agent asked again.

'Well, when we knew the mission failed, by the way I was working for Scorpia, we needed a back-up plan and therefore we needed Julius, so I saved his life.'

'Just one question: Does anybody still look through this?' Ziva asked.

'Nope' McGee added.

'Let's just arrest all of them and call MI6' Gibbs decided.

'How did you find me anyway?' Alex asked.

'Well, Interpol and CIA recently arrested up to forty members of Scorpia and a hostage was found. We wanted to inform you and worried when you didn't answer you phone' McGee said.

'A hostage?', Alex was more confused than before.

'Jack' Sasha muttered.

'What?' he asked in surprise.

'By the way, she was the easiest one to pretend her death' Sasha mentioned.

'Pretend her death?' the school boy asked.

'Well, the car you saw blowing up wasn't the car she was driving' Julius said with a mean undertone in his voice.

Alex rolled his eyes. So many emotions inside of him. Jack was not dead. All the sorrow, all the tears, wasted. He had blamed himself so often, thought about other possibilities how this could have ended and now he was told that everything had been for nothing.

And just because Sasha had helped to pretend three deaths, Yassen, Jack and Julius. They all were believed dead and were still alive. Alex felt anger coming up to him.

Everybody had lied to him. 'Okay, I don't get who are the good guys and who are the bad guys' Ziva said and looked at her colleagues.

'Cupcake. That's Julius, Alex' evil lookalike who wants to kill him' Tony explained and pointed at Julius. 'That's Alex, a British spy. And Sasha is the daughter of a Russian hatchet man who wants Alex dead.'

'Not precisely. Yassen sent me here to protect Alex' life' she answered.

'Why?' Alex asked in surprise.

'Your father has saved my father's life once, remember he told you. Therefore he never wanted you die' Sasha explained.

'Great, so you changed sides' Tony answered.

'Then we only have to arrest Julius, don't we?' McGee asked and tried to express it more simple.

'Yep' Gibbs decided and wanted to move forward.

But Julius stepped backward and stood next to Alex and Sasha. 'I'm not giving up that easily' he answered and threw himself on Alex' body.

Both fell down on the floor and started to scratch and kill each other. 'Oh my fucking god' Sasha muttered and rolled her eyes.

The other agents gathered next to her and watched the boys fight. 'They do that often?' Tony asked.

She nodded. 'Far too often' she decided and stepped forward.

She was glad that both were wearing something different or it had been difficult differentiating them. She pulled at Julius' shoulder and threw him backward. While he was falling, he grabbed the gun Ziva was holding and also pushed away her legs.

But before Julius could slacken the gun and point it toward anybody, there were three single shots fired and he lay down backward again. Ziva looked up and saw Sasha's angry face. She held her own gun, pointed at Julius and it was clear that she had been the one who had pulled her trigger first.

Alex stood up and walked next to her. He looked down on the dead body of Julius and felt nothing more than pure satisfaction.

'God' Tony muttered and relieved, he put back his gun. The other agents did so, too, but Sasha didn't.

She slowly walked over to the door.

'Where do you think you're going?' Gibbs asked suddenly.

She turned around and smiled. 'My father's waiting for me.'

'You're not going anywhere!'

'I'm the one pointing a gun at your MI6 agent' she said and targeted Alex.

'You were the one who said your father didn't want him dead' Ziva shouted.

'Yeah, that doesn't mean that I won't kill him' the girl answered smilingly.

And before the agents could pick their own guns, she turned around and ran out of the hall. Nobody was running after her, they didn't care that she escaped.

Alex only cared for seeing the long-time-dead-believed Jack again and was hugging her deeply when meeting her in the airport after her flight back to America, her home.

They were hugging so emotionally that Alan Blunt had to nudge Mrs. Jones so that she wiped away a single tear.

Tulip smiled at her former boss.

'I'm so glad that this operation ended with a happy end' she whispered.

Blunt nodded. He would have gotten more than only trouble if this got into publicity.

'No more experiments' he swore and slowly walked away.

Mrs. Jones followed and Alex, when opening his eyes, still in the hug of cute Jack, saw the two MI6 leaders walking away, finally walking away out of his life and leaving him alone forever.

**Well, Yassen and Aleksandra got away, too and are now happily working as contract killers together in Russia. And Alex and Jack have to tell each other a lot, too.**

**I'd like as much reviews as possible, please!**


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